Best Experimental Band: MTNS

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Daniel Enders, known colloquially as “Dan the Man” is something of a celebrity in town—partially because he is so recognizable, a large man with long hair usually pinned up under girly berets. Ever-present in the city’s bars and on its sidewalks, he is often walking a number of dogs. He always waves and smiles, a sort of benevolent boho-Hagrid character. But at night, Enders puts on a horse mask with an inverted cross drawn on it, takes off all his clothes (or maybe slips on a dress), and plays some of the city’s most batshit-crazy music. Enders’ demon-possessed drumming and Austin Hund’s fuzzed-out Satan bass propels MTNS to the top of the burning funeral pyre that is Seattle’s experimental-music scene. The group’s most recent album, All Songs Are Spells, sounds like an ancient malevolent beast being conjured from the depths of the void. Mammoth ADD-riddled drums, lurching bass, and walls of noise all swirl together in MTNS’ witch cauldron to form something truly hypnotic. If Enders is Hagrid by day, in MTNS he becomes Voldemort, casting the most sinister hexes in the spellbook they promised not to teach you at Hogwarts. Lucky for us, the dark magic sounds sublime.